7 Hottest Health Trends of 2017

These are the hottest happenings in the health and fitness world.

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By Taylor Lupo

Gone are the days of VHS workouts or relegating your workouts to the gym. Strength training, live-streaming classes and fitness diaries that fit in the palm of your hand are here to stay! Make 2017 your healthiest year yet with Sharecare’s list of the year’s best health trends.

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Strong is the New Skinny

Social media is saturated with women who aren’t afraid to hit the weights. A muscular physique is all the rage, but it’s not just a woman’s appearance that makes muscles so coveted.

Strength training, using free weights or resistance bands, is a great way to build muscle and bone strength, lose weight, manage chronic illness and boost brain power. Strength training may even stave off osteoporosis, the deterioration of bone, a condition that affects about eight million women in the United States. One study suggests strength training is beneficial for older adults by preserving physical independence.

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Veggie Proteins

Many have come to accept that not all protein has to come from animals. In fact, veggies, legumes and whole grains are excellent sources of plant-based proteins. A single cup of soybeans contains more protein than a serving of beef, with 29 grams of protein, plus 10 grams of fiber.

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Workplace Fitness

Many of us spend the majority of our day sitting, which can seriously harm your health. Sitting for long periods of time has been linked to higher rates of obesity and even an increased risk of heart disease-related death.

Desk jobs are to blame for much of the sitting we do each day, so many employers are making a push to get employees out of their seats. In fact, 85 percent of employers with more than 1,000 employees offer varying wellness programs. Take advantage of any workplace fitness promotions, like lunchtime workouts and fundraising races.

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Workouts

The CDC recommends adults get 75 minutes of vigorous or 150 minutes of moderate physical activity a week. Spice up your routie with the hottest new workouts!

You use tablets and smart phones for most things—add exercise to the mix! Many studios offer live-streaming classes you can do at home. Peloton Cycle, for example, is a stationary bike that allows you to stream cycling classes from a tablet attached to the handlebars.

Prefer to hit the gym? Boxing is a great way to work your entire body. Swinging motions work your arms and shoulders, and the crouching position engages your legs and core. Or head to a megaformer studio for a workout that engages your entire body using just one machine.

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Boutique Exercise Classes

Boutique fitness brands like SoulCycle and Barry’s Bootcamp are known across the globe, but new studios are stepping into the spotlight.

Barre3 is a class that uses small, isometric movements to lengthen and tone the body. This class incorporates Pilates, ballet and yoga to target your core, arms and legs and because barre workouts use slow, deliberate movements, they’re easy on the joints.

A typical Orangetheory workout is broken into two parts: cardio- and strength-training intervals. The goal of the hour-long, high-intensity workout? Burn calories, improve conditioning and build muscle. Some studies suggest high intensity interval training can help burn calories for hours after the workout!

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Monetary Incentives

This year’s hottest health apps upped the ante by allowing users to earn money for reaching health and fitness goals.

DietBet is an incentivized weight loss site. Participants pay to enter a challenge during which they must lose a percentage of their starting weight; everyone who reaches their goal splits the pot. The HealthyWage challenge allows participants to invest money with the chance to win up to $10,000 for reaching goals.

Incentive-based programs do more than aid weight loss: they help you manage stress and look younger. Get a baseline measurement of your health and wellness before starting a program by taking the RealAge Test. It shows how your lifestyle affects your longevity.

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Walkability and Wearable Technology

Millennials get a bad rap, but they may have started one of the biggest health trends of 2017. Many young people are ditching their cars to move to urban areas, where walking and cycling are the primary modes of transportation. More and more people are choosing active transportation to get to and from work—and you can, too.

Active transportation, or transportation powered by people—like biking or walking—can improve physical health, is an affordable mode of transportation and helps reduce air pollution.

Get the most out of your extra steps by tracking them! Wearable technology, like the FitBit, a big hit in 2016, remains a trend into the New Year.

More Slideshows

Wellness is a difficult word to define. Traditionally wellness has meant the opposite of illness and the absence of disease and disability. More recently wellness has come to describe something that you have personal control over. ...

Wellness is now a word used to describe living the best possible life you can regardless of whether you have a disease or disability. Your wellness is not only related to your physical health, but is a combination of things including spiritual wellness, social wellness, mental wellness and emotional wellness. Wellness is seen as a combination of mind, body and spirit. Different people may have different ideas about wellness. There is no single set standard for wellness and wellness is a difficult thing to quantify.